This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. H10-270441 filed in Japan on Sep. 25, 1998, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing method, device, and program product, and more specifically relates to a method, device, and program product for retrieving image data from a database.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, database systems have been provided for storing and managing image data.
Generally, in database systems for image data, attribute information such as creation date, file name, file format and the like, and key information such as key words, color and the like are appended to each image data and stored together with the image data.
Normally, the aforesaid attribute information is set automatically by the system. In recent years the key information (specifically color) also can be automatically set through image processing of the image data. In the present specification, color means individual color specified by, for example, hue, lightness, and saturation (HLS space).
The key information is used when retrieving desired image data from among image data stored in a database. For example, when a specific word is specified as a retrieval criterion and retrieval is executed, the image data which have the same word (key word) as the specified word appended as key information are extracted as the retrieval result.
In the aforesaid conventional image data database systems, when attempting to retrieve desired image data using color, that color is specified as a retrieval criterion so as to retrieve image data which have the same color as the specified color or a similar color appended as key information.
In the meantime, color has, in addition to an inherent image, various different images depending on combinations with other colors, i.e., color schemes. Further, color schemes include desirable (compatible) color arrangements, and undesirable color arrangements. For this reason the extraction of image data (expressed in an image) compatible with certain image data (expressed in an image) as a color scheme is considered the purpose of retrieval in image data database systems.
In the conventional image data database systems, however, it is extremely difficult to accomplish such an object retrieval.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved information processing method, device and program product which eliminate the previously described problems.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method, device, and program product capable of retrieving image data compatible with certain image data as a color scheme by a simple operation.
These objects are attained by providing an information processing method comprising the steps of:
(1) selecting a piece of image data as a retrieval criterion from among a plurality of image data stored in a first memory device;
(2) extracting a color stored in combination with a feature color of the image data selected in the step (1) from a second memory device for storing a plurality of two-color combinations suitable as color schemes; and
(3) extracting image data having the color extracted in the step (2) as a feature color from the first memory device as a retrieval result.
In this method, the second memory device may further store images relative to each combination, the step (1) may further include a step of selecting one image among the images stored in the second memory device as a retrieval criterion, and at step (2), a color stored in combination with a feature color of the image data selected in step (1) and corresponding to the image selected in the step (1) is extracted from the second memory device.
In this method, the feature color may be stored appending to image data in the first memory device. Also, the feature color may be automatically extracted from image data when retrieval is executed.
These objects are attained by providing an information processing device comprising:
a first memory device for storing a plurality of image data;
a second memory device for storing a plurality of two-color combinations suitable as color schemes; and
a processor for, when a piece of image data is selected as a retrieval criterion from among the plurality of image data stored in the first memory device, extracting from the second memory device a color stored in combination with a feature color of the selected image data and extracting from the first memory device as a retrieval result image data having the color extracted from the second memory device as a feature color.
These objects are further attained by providing a program product executable by a computer for processing information, said program product comprising:
a selection means for selecting a piece of image data as a retrieval criterion from among a plurality of image data stored in a first memory device;
a first extraction means for extracting a color stored in combination with a feature color of image data selected by the selection means from a second memory device for storing a plurality of two-color combinations suitable as color schemes; and
a second extraction means for extracting image data having the color extracted by the first extraction means as a feature color from the first memory device as a retrieval result.